RAILROAD REPORTING MARKS -
PAST & PRESENT

Over 12,650 Reporting Marks and Abbreviations for
North American Railroads

Originally compiled by Jesse Koski.
Subsequent revisions by Ken Humphreys.

P&WRR expresses
appreciation to the many contributors of
reporting mark information who have assisted in
keeping this listing as current as possible. In
particular we wish express our deep appreciation
to IHS
Maritime & Trade, publishers of The Official
Railway Equipment Register (ORER). The link to IHS takes
you to their railroad related publications.
Without the assistance of IHS Rail Resource and
ORER it would be literally impossible for us
keep this listing of AAR reporting marks
current.

If you have any comments, corrections or additions,
please e-mail the P&WRR
Webmaster.

This file contains AAR
assigned reporting marks that have been compiled from many
sources such as the Official Railway Equipment
Register(ORER). Many common railroad
abbreviations are also included. The list includes all active
AAR reporting marks listed in the July 2015
issue of ORER plus many others which have been reported by viewers
of this web page. Hundreds of historical marks which are no
longer in use are included in these listings. Note that some
companies do not include their marks in any generally
available published listings. Thus, such marks which are
currently in use are not necessarily reflected in this list
unless we have learned of the existence of the mark and have
been able to identify the name of the owner of the mark.

It should also be noted that many active marks are those of
orphan railroads and companies which are no longer in
business. Quite often the successor company continues to use
the orphan marks and does not have the registration of the
mark updated. In those cases we have attempted to show the
name of the orphan railroad or company as well as the current
user of the mark. Also included in the abbreviations are 199
railroads and affiliated companies which became a part of the
Southern Railway System. Railroads acquired by Southern some
time after 1894 when the railroad was formed by merger of
several railroads are noted in the listings. The
Southern Railway System later merged with the Norfolk &
Western Railway to become the Norfolk Southern Corporation in
1982. Note that
most of the companies which were incorporated into the
Southern Railway existed before the advent of AAR reporting
marks. They are therefore listed by abbreviations, not by
reporting marks.

Many container and trailer marks were added to this listing
in September 2010. This listing of container and trailer marks
is complete only through November 1997. After that
date, the listing is not complete. Publication of the Official Intermodal Equipment
Register was discontinued after March 2000. With the
explosive growth of intermodal transport, there are now
literally thousands of container marks and these change quite
frequently.It is therefore literally impossible
for P&WRR to maintain a complete list of container marks.
However a searchable list of all current marks is available at
http://www.bic-code.org/official-register-containers-bic-code.html.
The registry of marks is now maintained by the Bureau
International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal rather
than by AAR.

* (Asterisk) or + (plus) denotes duplicated or reassigned
reporting marks among the various sources we have come
across over the years. This is often due to the fact that
the reporting mark had been retired long ago and reassigned,
or the company was sold, bought out, merged and/or changed
names. Some marks are also registered to equipment leasing
companies which have leased the equipment to more than one
customer, each of which used the mark. In some cases a mark
may be shown as the mark of the leasing company and also as
the mark of the lessee company. If both the lessee company
and the equipment leasing company are known, both names
appear after the mark and are separated by a /. Many
of the duplicated reporting marks are also due to the many
railroad mergers and purchases over the years. Since this is
a compilation of many reporting marks lists, we have made no
attempt to track down the history of the many companies in
this list. In most cases, but not all, duplicated marks are
listed with the oldest mark first. If the current holder of
a duplicated or reassigned mark is known, the entry is
preceded by +.

If the AAR assigned reporting mark differs from the AAR
uniform alpha code, the uniform alpha code is shown in
parenthesis prior to the name of the reporting user. A
limited number of commonly used abbreviations for railroad
names and terms is also included in this listing. Examples
are MOW (maintenance of way) and UNK (railroad unknown).

Reporting marks, along with the car serial number, are used
by shippers and railroads to identify specific pieces of
rolling stock. All organizations with cars in interchange
service are assigned reporting marks by the AAR. Some
reporting marks may still be registered even though the
organizations no longer have cars in interchange service or
may still be awaiting delivery of ordered cars.

The uniform ALPHA code is assigned by the AAR to all
organizations that may be involved in handling rail
equipment. The ALPHA code usually, but NOT always, is the
same as the reporting mark and, in the case of an
organization that has no current or planned interchange
equipment, is NOT to be considered as a reporting mark until
so assigned. The ALPHA code is used by shippers and
railroads to identify car-handling organizations for purpose
of routing, billing, division of charges, etc.

PLEASE NOTE that for historical research purposes
this list contains references to many companies that are
no longer be in existence.

NOTE ALSO that reporting mark changes and additions occur
frequently. Company names also change due to mergers and
other reasons. If any errors, changes or omissions are
noted in these listings, please bring them to the
attention of the P&WRR
Webmaster so that we may keep these listings as
current and comprehensive as possible.